A world-wide community of service providers has a presence on the Internet, and people seeking services typically go to the Internet to search for service providers. For example, a person seeking printing services may search the Internet for service providers in their area. In another example, a business seeking to enter into a contract for shipping services may search the Internet for service providers to solicit bids.
Using a search engine to find service providers on the Internet that can potentially provide a desired service can be a difficult and time consuming task. Part of the reason for the difficulty is because there is no structured format followed by service providers for providing details on their services. The majority of service providers do not use a structured format or framework, and instead, provide information about their services on their web sites for a user to read. As a result, a user searching for service providers would have to visit each web site, read the content, and make a determination as to whether a service described at web site is the type of service the user desires.